The North Bay Battalion and the Sudbury Wolves face off seven more times this season, including this coming Friday in the nickel city.
The Wolves won the opening battle of this year’s Highway 17 rivalry with a 4-3 overtime win Sunday at Memorial Gardens.
“It was an intense game. An exciting one for the fans for sure,” says Ryan Oulahen, Battalion Head Coach and Assistant General Manager. “There was a lot of back and forth. Disappointed to come out on the wrong end but when you get to overtime you get a couple chances go your way. When you don’t capitalize you’re eventually going to give up chances going the other way.”
Jacob Therrien scored on the powerplay in the first before Sudbury answered back.
The Wolves would take a 2-1 lead into the final frame with Troops’ Captain Owen Van Steensel tallying 31 seconds into the third to even the score.
Nolan Laird would give North Bay the lead just over a minute later before Sudbury squared things up a minute after that, and then won it in overtime.
Shots on goal were 46 apiece.
After three games in four days, Oulahen says rest is on the agenda to start the week.
“That’s going to be the main thing, get some rest,” he says. “From there we’ll just sharpen up our game a bit. At times we’re sound defensively and at times we’re running around a bit so we have to get back on track with that.”
Next up, North Bay is home to the Ottawa 67’s on Thursday.
